Organising Committee

Lucy Baker

Lucy’s PhD questions if and how empowerment is achieved through the mobility of cycling practice as it travels from the West to Africa, exploring processes of translation through an assemblage of materials (second hand bicycles), human agents (NGOs), everyday performances, and spaces of consumption. The case study of transferring cycling practice to Africa offers a lens to critically examine how the consumption spaces and practices produced by western development NGOs can be marginalised from modern, emerging, consumption spaces in Africa, which may offer opportunities for empowerment. Lucy is a mobile being herself and not often a day goes by when she’s not cycling or hill running. With a BA in Fine Art she is also interested in art-geography creative and visual methods or collaborations. Lucy is an ESRC scholar and can be found on Twitter @lucyrbaker.

Melissa Dickinson

Melissa is approaching the third year of her PhD in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University. She is a cultural and urban economic geographer with broader research interests in urban development, cities, urban regeneration, and the cultural-creative economy. Her research is funded by the ESRC and explores how intangible capital, through the lens of entrepreneurial capital and social-network capital, influences economic development within an urban environment. Contributing to debates in urban geography and urban economic development. In her free time she enjoys exploring cities, has an equal love for food and fitness, and cares for her two mischievous house bunnies. She is on Twitter @MelisDickinson.

Charlotte Ford

Charlotte is an ESRC and Welsh Government funded PhD student starting her second year of research. Broadly her research interests are surrounding climate change adaptation, governance and the psychology of risk. Together these core themes have created the interdisciplinary nature of her study entitled ‘What Space for Place in Wales – Bridging Risk Perceptions and Policy Priorities in the Spatial Governance of Climate Adaptation in Wales’. The study theoretically examines the perceived risks of climate change amongst communities in Wales. Alongside this, it explores forums of collaborative working derived from the Well-being and Future Generations Act (2016), that involve experts and stakeholders across the governance spectrum, which are said to be an effective method in co-producing and promoting climate policy. It is anticipated that these methods transcend into widespread adaptation action across scales, leading to societal transformation to reduce vulnerability to the risks of climate change. In her spare time Charlotte enjoys drawing, walking, visiting new places and looking after her cats. She is on Twitter @CharlotteF931.

Kieran O’Mahony

Kieran is an ESRC funded PhD student with a background in conservation, ecology and human-nonhuman relations. His current research is concerned with rewilding, biosecurity and the ways we govern and live with reintroduced species. This is being explored through an ethnographic study focusing on the return of wild boar to the British countryside. Beyond this, he enjoys cycling, walking and most other outdoor activities. He is on Twitter @totheeast.

Jen Owen

Jen’s PhD research is funded by the ESRC and examines what the growth of the self-storage industry in the UK can tell us about our modern material lives. By examining the changing landscape of storage and how we use it she hopes to gain an understanding of how the needs of individuals, families and businesses have changed over the last half century. To do so she has been conducting research with self-storage users to learn about their motivations to rent self-storage, material and spatial practices, as well as the stories behind the (often) dormant objects. More broadly, she is interested in geographies of the everyday, material cultural geographies, and sensory and emotional methodologies. In her free time Jen enjoys music, dog walking and attempting to complete her scratch map. She is on Twitter @jen_owen11.

Find the organising committee on Twitter at @RGSmidterm2017 and contact them by email RGSmidterm2017@cardiff.ac.uk.

Associated with

The Forum represents postgraduates in the RGS (with IBG). It fosters communications among postgraduates, provides information about events, activities and funding and offers support and opportunities for postgraduates to further develop their professional skills and credentials.
It is part of the family of RGS (with IBG) Research and Working Groups, and more information on these, including a privacy notice for research group members in line with 2018's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is available here.